I am Setsuna ps4 review

I was really excited about this game, as it reminded me so much of a game I played years ago. Chrono Trigger. Also,, anytime there is a Ps4 exclusive, I like that. But did it live up to the hype?

What I liked
For it not really changing the aesthetic all that much, the game was pretty. Well,, if you don't mind snow, as that was a constant theme. I liked the way it looked, so that is ok for me.

There is a definitely a feel of Chrono Trigger here as the battles were very quick and moved quickly.

The boss fights were challenging. I did a few times and really had to think about how to go about them a few times.

What I did not like

The game was way too easy. Random fights were just not even a challenge, and then the boss fights would be ridiculously hard. No balance at all.

I was bored most of the time. The story was so predictable and cliche that I just did not care. In an age where I have played games like Witcher 3, Uncharted 4, Gone Home, and others...this story just did not work. Yes, it is a smaller company, but good story telling is something even small companies can do.

Also the characters were not any better as they did things that made no sense at all, and I never cared about any of them.

The beginning was just bad. You are a mercenary that is "known" for how you always finish your assignment. So, when you are pad to kill this young girl you don't do it? Why. Reasons. I guess. Then she wants you to join her pilgrimage. Why? Reasons. I guess.

Lack of voice acting, but then characters would say things in japanese sometimes.

Why do games give you dialogue options that don't really do anything? This is something that should not happen now. That makes it feel like an old school game, in the worst way.

Overall
Just a disappointment as I really wanted to like this game. Bad storytelling with boring characters did not thing to help this game be anything other than mediocre.

Rating 4.5 out of 10

Review of the original Final Fantasy

The first game of the Final Fantasy Challenge to rate all of the games and finally answer the question which is best. 

Final Fantasy

Time played: 32 hours

Everything will be rated on a 1-10 scale (1 being the worst and 10 being the best).

Total Rating 3.4 out of 10

Story-I guess there was a story in there somewhere. Your goal is to just rid the world of evil!  Oooook. It is pretty standard stuff, you are going to fight the fiends that got together and tried to take over the world? Or something? With all the grinding that went into the game, I forgot about the story most of the time…which is ok since it was not that interesting anyways.

The big twist where you find out that Garland (the first sort of boss in the game) is behind it was ok. I mean since you never really knew what was going on in the first place, him coming back was kind of surprising. Also, the game did not give you ANY direction sometimes. That is the problem when there weren’t any notable npc’s to interact with. Yes, you could wander around exploring, but the crappy gameplay made that not enjoyable. I had to go online and look up where to go sometimes because otherwise I would have thrown my ps3 out the damn window.

Rating 2 out of 10

Characters-I believe this is the only game in the series that doesn’t have named characters. It showed as you just chose four different classes and named them. I chose Warrior, monk, red mage, and white mage. At first I had thief and black mage, but the thief in the game is the worst of any game I had ever played. He was USELESS. Yes, he could have eventually become a ninja later on, but he could not hit anything and almost died constantly. Eventually you could upgrade to a better version of your class, but it took so long to happen that it really did not help much in ways of gameplay.

Also it was crazy how much loot there were for the warrior, but not really anyone else. Everyone else barely had any armor and just got their asses handed to them. But the fighter would find new armor, and swords, and shields. Meanwhile, my monk and red mage were barely living in most fights. Thank goodness you could buy potions, cuz you used them often.

There was nothing to connect you to them. They were just four heroes that went around trying to save the world. There were no npc’s in the game worth mentioning as you rarely interacted with anyone.

Rating 2 out of 10

Villains-Nothing too interesting as the story is just telling you go to defeat the fiends. The twist was kind of wasted as you find out that Gordon is behind all of it and you thought you had killed him. Marilith at least looked cool.

Rating 2 out of 10

Setting/theme-Other than the end of the world there was not much of a setting. It could be at this point in rpg’s that it was not that important? Hell I don’t know. But the world was not flushed out at all. There were villages with dwarves and elves, but they added nothing at all to the world.

There was also no real theme to the game, other than just “go destroy evil”. I keep using the same words as there was nothing to really get to connect with the game at all.

Rating 1 out of 10

Battle System-I know this was the first game in the series, but was not enamored with the battle system. Well, that isn’t true, the system itself was ok, but what was NOT ok was how much you had to fight. It was ridiculous. I mean you could take five steps and have five different fights. What made that even worse was the fact that the monsters in the game constantly ambush you. I mean A LOT. There was a time when I got to the Terra Cavern to fight the Vampire there, and I was ambushed 8 straight times. Then I one shot the vampire. Really? He was a boss.

The slots for the magic was also annoying. That doesn’t even get into how expensive it was just to buy the magic. I have always preferred a mp method (like they use in like every other one). At most times you would only have one or two really helpful spells, and when you are stuck in a dungeons fighting every step…it wasn’t good.

Rating 2 out of 10

Difficulty

The game itself was not that hard. The bosses were easy to the point of pathetic in most cases. In defense of the game that is likely do to all of the grinding you had to do. So by the time you came to bosses, you were fairly powerful.

Everything poisons you. I mean it was ridiculous how much I had to back and keep buying antidotes at first. Later on you just bought a bunch.  As I mentioned above, the ambushes made the game hard at times. You would get attacked and before you knew it they had killed both the red mage and white mage. Game over since there were not phoenix downs yet. I died a few times this way.

Also, taking a canoe on the water? WTF. The enemies on water are maybe the hardest in the game for where you are level wise. I mean they were brutal, and you had to take a few paths that could only be taken this way and wow they were hard. Ambush meant death in those fights a lot of times.

Score 7 out of 10

Fun factor-There was not really any point where I enjoyed playing this. Maybe the first time, for a few minutes, before all of the fighting got me frustrated. The biggest thing I could say about this game is that I would not tell anyone to play it. It isn’t worth the 30 hours I put into it.

Rating 1 out of 10

Overall 3.4 out of 10. The game just doesn't hold up. Yes, it was the first in the series and there is something to say about that, but overall it was not a real enjoyable experience. This doesn't take away from how much I love Final Fantasy, but this specific game is one I would not play again. 

I love open world rpgs but I am an idiot

So, I am a dumbass.

There are so many great games out there and lord knows I love good open world rpg’s such as Dragon Age Inquisition and Witcher: Wild Hunt. These games are freaking awesome, but I go about playing them in the dumbest way possible.

Both of these games are awesome, and Witcher could eventually be my favorite RPG of all time. It is that good. But the dumb I do is I keep starting over.

I know, right?

So, I start the game I and love it. But you can tinker around with that kind of player you want to play. With DAO you can try different classes, and with Witcher you get to figure out which of the gameplay types you want. Do you want use magic? Or go all in on fast attack?

So, I do that for a while and then I start over AGAIN. I don’t know what is wrong with me. I do love the beginnings of games and both of these games are great at starting a story.  

So, the end result is that I have played DAO multiple times for over 75 hours. I have played Witcher about the same and recently started over. The problem is that I got burned out on both of them. So I am taking a break from them and playing old school final fantasy.

It is so stupid.

But now freking Fallout 4 is coming out and I really have to make myself just play the damn game and stop obsessing over tinkering around with the kind of character I can be.

One can only hope.

Does anyone else do this?

The Final Fantasy challenge

I love Final Fantasy. I always have, and probably always will. I mean they are even remaking my favorite one of all (FF7) at some point. No soon though.

I have also always loved IGN, and especially their playstastion podcast, podcast beyond. So, when Greg Miller and Colin Moriarty left their job to start their own youtube channel, I eventually started following them there. The reason this is relevant is that I joined their community on their web page (www.kindafunny.com) and we have talked A LOT of Final Fantasy. Especially as to which one is the best. The answer is usually 4, 6,or 7.

So, I had an idea. It may be a dumb idea that I may do alone…but that is ok. I am going to play all of the Final Fantasy games from the beginning. Now this excludes 3 and 4 as I don’t have them on the Playstation 3. Well, probably not as worst case scenario is that I can play them on steam or buy a vita.

The funny thing is I realized I have not finished all of them. I have not finished 1, 2, 5, 6 (don’t kill me), or 8.

While I am doing that, I am gonna then review each one once I am done to and rate each one. From worst to best. It could take a while. 

So, I was gonna see if anyone else wanted to do this with me. It doesn’t even have to be all of them, but maybe whichever I am on at the time. So, if I am playing 2, you could start playing it at the same time, and then we can all talk about it once it is done.

I know this may be a silly thing, but I LOVE this series and would like to eventually finish all the games.

*I left out Tactics, only cuz it is a different type of game and although it is AMAZING.

** None of the sequels either.

***This is insane I know.

I am finally getting excited about gaming again

It has been a while. I have gamed only one time in the last 16 months and I left that day due to a mile panic attack. But once in almost a year and a half???

I know, right?

There was a time when I gamed all the time. I was a consistent member of the G+ community, and even co-hosted a hangout discussing Fate with some of its amazing authors. Man, that was such a great time and I miss it.

Then the depression hit.

I am not going to go into that, since that is what this is about. This is about me being excited about gaming for the first time in…a long time. It has been a slow process

But lately I have been feeling it come back. Not really sure what it was that started it, but I am not going to complain. There are so many games that I own, that I still want to play. Nothing is worse than looking over and seeing gaming books that although you have read, are just collecting dust…along with all your dice.

But now? I am almost ready to get back into it. What games do I want to play? Well, sadly, they are the same games I have said I wanted to play for some time. They are:

Dragon Age

I love the video game so much. I am even reading some of the books (which are not bad). It is a world that I like and lord knows I love a good versus evil scenario more than just about anything. I have always appreciated the simplicity of the system, but have yet to play it. This is one that I really want to sink my teeth into and get a campaign going.

The Dresden Files

This is one of my favorite games of all time. I remember the joy of getting to play test it back in the day and have always wanted to get a campaign going. It doesn’t hurt that it is based on my favorite books of all time, but even more than that it uses Fate, which have always loved.

Dungeon World

I love a game that took everything I liked about D&D back in the day and turned it into a game I actually wanted to play. Again, the rules are simple and easy for people to pick up on. But the beauty in the game is the simplicity and the stories you can tell. That is where this game shines…you get to tell your story, and who doesn’t want that?

Fate Core

Oddly as much of a fan as I am of Fate, I have not played it since it was actually released. That in itself is pretty much sacrilege as I have always been a HUGE supporter of the system. It also is a game where you can tell YOUR story and it is not bogged down by the rules. Not to mention, you can play any kind of game you want. From a fantasy setting, to fighting nazi werewolves in ww2, to an old west setting where you hunt down rogue robots bent on controlling the west. Seriously, it can be whatever you want it to be. Awesome.

Firefly

This is the one I don’t own, but may be most excited about. I am still mad at how bad Serenity was and have always thought this could be a better game. So, when they talked about making this I was really excited. I was more excited by the people involved in the game, as they are stellar. But mostly I am just excited at the thought of having my own ship and sticking it to the Alliance!

Mouse Guard

I had so much fun playing this game a few years ago. It is based on very good graphic novels of the same name. Yet, there was something joyful about playing guard mice and dealing with the dangers that entailed. Snakes, treachery, hard decisions. It is all great. The system is pretty simple as well and it is something I would really love to get back into.

The One Ring

Am still waiting to play my first game of this. Also my first game that takes place in Middle Earth that is really good. There have been a few that were ok, but overall pretty damn bad. I have heard great things about it and reading through it has been a joy. Now, I just want to pick up my sword and go fight some god damn orcs.

Star Wars: Edge of the Empire

I have fond memories of playing the old D6 version of SW. Sadly, the one that Wizards did that was d20 did nothing for me, so I was excited to see someone decided to take a chance on this amazing setting. Hell, who doesn’t want to be a jedi? Or an x-wing pilot? This is a setting that means a lot to me and I want to play this pretty badly.

There are others, but these are the ones I want to play before the year is up. Yep, that gives me just over 3 months to try to get some quality gaming in.

I am finally ready.